democracy, dreams, and dorkitude

yesterday was the full moon, and I wonder if that explains my crazy dreams and crazy sentimentalism the last few days.

I had a dream a few nights ago involving David Boreanaz, the star of Angel, standing over really big Jacuzzi-style bathtub and I was holding his head while he puked. There were other things that happened in the dream, things I remembered yesterday but have forgotten today. I remember there were other bathroom scenes in the dream...maybe we were looking at tile or at fixtures, but there was a lot of bathroom and plumbing stuff going on. Dunno.

And last night I had a really lovely night of live music seeing Jayme Stone and Dar Williams. Both performances were so awesome.

Tonight, after work, I was at a 4-hour training to become an Election Judge. I have an eleventybilliion page manual. I will have to be at my TBA polling location starting at 5:30am on election day and be there until maybe midnight-ish. I was told a 14hour day would be a "get off easy" kind of day, and that I can't leave my location the entire time and I need to bring all the food and beverage I need for the whole day (or have a friend or someone bring me food and beverage...hint, hint) and that I can't have access to my cell phone for the entire time. There are going to be 7 election judges at each polling site and we'll all rotate through the various duties throughout the day and get a fancy title for each position: Greeter Judge, Sign-In Judge, Poll Book Judge, Ballot Judge, Ballot Box Judge, and Machine Judge. I learned all about what it takes to get the polling location set up including hands-on training to set up both the electronic machines and the paper ballot voting booths. I learned about all the security involved in tracking the ballots from their sealed unopened containers to the securing of the ballots that are cast and the unused ballots. I learned about spoiling ballots and Fleeing Voters. Oh, those sneaky Fleeing Voters.

I also want to encourage everyone to find ways to vote early or vote by mail, if it is possible for you in your location. My state has early voting locations available, and I'll have to vote that way since I won't be able to vote on election day. I love going to the polls to vote, and it is the primary reason I signed up to do this Election Judge gig, but after seeing what is involved, I understand why there need to be other mechanisms for collecting voices.

And after the first 10 minutes when I got the shock of "5:30am arrival" and "maybe a midnight end time" and "can't leave the location until everything is finished" and "no Coffee-Run Judge". I said, hey, this is INCREDIBLE! I had no idea how much work goes into making our system run. How much human devotion and dedication is involved in making sure that votes are properly cast, that people are legitimately casting ballots, that people are able to cast provisional ballots in case something is strange, and that NO ONE GETS TURNED AWAY FROM THE POLLS. And that it will be part of my duty to help insure that stays true. That this election is fair and secure and just. I am sitting here typing this, weeping. I'm such a dork. A patriotic, democracy-loving, sentimental dork. I think it is so amazing that we have a voice, that our voice gets counted, and our voices matter. Our opinions matter. And maintaining that integrity is important.